Two new routes over the Padma Bridge will be opened by Bangladesh Railway on Tuesday. One will connect the capital to southern Khulna, while the other will connect it to the western Benapole land border via Jashore.
Jahanabad Express and Ruposhi Bangla Express are the names given by railway officials to the two trains that will operate on the new tracks.
“The Jahanabad Express will leave Khulna at 6 am and reach Kamalapur at 9:45 am while the Ruposhi Bangla will leave Kamalapur at 10:45 am and reach Benapole at 2:30 pm passing through Jashore,” railway’s director general Mohammad Afzal Hossain told BSS.
According to him, the Jahanabad Express will depart Kamalapur station at 8 p.m. and arrive in Khulna at 11.30 p.m. on the same day, while the Ruposhi Bangla Express will depart Benapole station at 3:30 p.m. and arrive in Kamalapur at 7 p.m.
It used to take almost ten hours to travel from Khulna to Dhaka via the Bangabandhu Bridge, while it took more than eight hours to travel by train from Dhaka to Jashore across the same bridge.
The journey time on both routes was almost cut in half by the recently built railway link.
The recently built 172-kilometer broad-gauge single-line railway track, according to railway officials, joined the existing train line that travels to Khulna via Singia stations.
Hossain said the government has constructed the 172-km new railway track having provision to upgrade it into double from Kamalapur to Rupdia towards Jashore and Singia station towards Khulna at a cost of Taka 37,155 crore.
He stated that the Ruposhi Bangla will halt at the Narail, Kashiani, and Bhanga junctions, while the Jahanabad Express would stop at the Nowapara, Singia, Lohagara, Kashiani, and Bhanga junctions.
Both trains will run every day except Monday, which is a holiday. They each contain 12 carriages, or compartments, that can hold 768 passengers.
